The Yorkshire Evening Post quotes Tointon as saying: "I have had a fantastic couple of years and yet there was a point after EastEnders that I strongly considered giving up on acting and resorting to my plan B, training to be an interior designer.

"At that point, I started to think it wasn't going to happen for me.

"After you've been in a soap, people can assume you can't do anything else, because you're associated with your TV character.

"It can be demoralising, going to audition after audition and getting rejected, and you have to be pretty strong to carry on in this business."